The Bruin who landed the quad

Ashna Madni | June 8, 2026

Benjamin Krut holds a unique place among the UCLA class of 2026.

Of the thousands of Bruins taking part in UCLA College commencement ceremonies, Krut is the one and only student who has completed four academic majors.

That feat is about as rare as you might guess: From 2020 through 2025, more than 42,000 undergraduates earned degrees from the College. Exactly three of them were quadruple majors.

All of Krut’s majors are in the UCLA College Division of Humanities: art history, comparative literature, Near Eastern languages and cultures, and philosophy. For good measure, Krut recently decided to round out his portfolio with a minor in history, in the Division of Social Sciences.

‘More to sink my teeth into’

Krut, a Florida native, began his UCLA journey as a philosophy major. “I enjoyed it, but I felt like there was more I wanted to sink my teeth into,” he said. “I liked art history in high school, so I decided to pick that up as a second major.”

In his art history courses, Krut noticed that his professors often connected the artwork they were discussing with biblical and mythological stories. That inspired Krut to seek courses in which he could delve more deeply into those sorts of texts, which led him to the comparative literature major.

Triple majors aren’t as rare at UCLA as quadruple majors, but they’re still comparatively unusual: Between 2020 and 2025, just 39 students graduated from the College with three majors.

Even with that third major added to the mix, Krut was on track to graduate from UCLA in three years.

“The quarter system lends itself well to pursuing multiple majors and minors, or even graduating early,” Krut said. “Everything’s designed for students to take three classes a quarter. But if you take four, or even five, which I did last fall, they start to add up quickly.”

But leaving UCLA early wasn’t in the cards. Krut wanted to write a senior honors thesis in art history, which would keep him on campus for another year.

What’s one more?

As his fourth year at UCLA began, Krut realized that he was close to satisfying the requirements for another major. Thanks to his coursework in biblical Hebrew (through comparative literature) and archaeology (art history), and his senior thesis, he was only one class away from a major in Near Eastern languages and cultures.

“The classes I took for my other majors overlapped in a way that ended up meeting most of the requirements for NELC,” he said. “Adding it as my fourth major just came into place naturally from pursuing what was interesting and useful to me.”

Krut admitted that he’s still not sure how he juggled all of his major requirements, but he said each one inspired him to delve more deeply into subject matter than he might have otherwise.

Krut said the breadth of his majors helped improve his understanding of each of the disciplines individually.

“Philosophy, in particular, helped me approach my other studies with a more logical and analytic way of thinking,” he said. “Each subject I’m studying provides the others with more historical, cultural or textual context.”

That ability to draw on lessons from other fields impressed Jeremy Smoak, a senior lecturer in Near Eastern languages and cultures who taught Krut’s Hebrew language courses.

“In my courses, Ben would thoughtfully try to connect linguistic analysis to what he was learning in his non-language courses,” Smoak said. “He excelled in helping his peers see the larger implications of some of the more detailed work that we did with grammar and translation.”

Driven by curiosity

Art history professor David Schneller, Krut’s senior thesis advisor, said it was clear that Krut wasn’t adding majors just for the sake of padding his resume or achieving a rare feat.

“Ben’s academic path was driven by curiosity, not strategy,” he said. “Each field opened onto a new set of questions, and he followed those questions wherever they led. The four majors and minor were not the goal. They are the result of an intellectual curiosity that consistently pushed him beyond the boundaries of any one discipline.”

Krut said landing the quad took a combination of good planning and good luck. In the end, he said, he figures that working to complete each major inspired him to delve more deeply into subject matter than he might have otherwise.

Looking back on his time at UCLA, Krut said he’s not totally sure how he balanced everything. But his takeaway is simple.

“I did the things that I liked,” he said. “It’s easier to manage the workload when you genuinely like what you’re doing.”

Krut will participate in commencement this month and then finish up his course requirements over the summer. After that, he said, he’ll take some time to figure out whether he wants to pursue law school or a graduate degree in art history.

“I feel good knowing I’ve done as much as I can,” he said. “No stone has been left unturned, which is as much as you can ask from a college education. It feels like it’s time to graduate.”